Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Three Years in Tibet
Three Years in Tibet
byEkai Kawaguchi
Format: Kindle EditionChange
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Showing 1-4 of 4 reviews
Bariloche
5.0 out of 5 starsAmazing JourneyOctober 18, 2008
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Everyone should read this book. Especially those with an interest in Tibet. In 1897 a Japanese Buddhist Monk left Japan to walk into Tibet to gather Buddhist Scriptures and learning.
He first went to India to learn to speak Tibetan and then after some years, he walked into Tibet, avoiding the usual checkpoints. He had to do this because generally the penalty for incursion into Tibet was death - to that person and everyone who helped them.
His account of the journey was nothing short of miraculous. His route was the highest and most difficult and the stories of how he survived leave you breathless. He survived on practically no food and on one frozen occasion, he kept himself alive overnight in the winter in inadequate clothing by meditating.
Eventually he bluffs his way in and is admitted to a monastery where he begins study and eventually, although he is not a doctor, he establishes a reputation as a skilled doctor by reason of his skills which are far better than the local doctors - in fact, he believes the best advice in Tibet is to avoid their doctors if you want to live. He even becomes physician to the Dalai Lama.
He remained there 3 years observing every thing around him. His descriptions of local society, religion, customs, marriages, funerals, appointment of Lamas including the Dalai Lama, government, punishment, ignorance, superstition, cleanliness (or the opposite) and practically everything else you could think of (including the relationship with China) is fascinating and a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the present situation with China and the world.
I first borrowed a first edition of this book and went back to borrow it so many times that I finally decided that I had to own a copy of my own. So should you.
13 people found this helpful
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Pall Mall
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Important and Entertaining BookMarch 25, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Three Years in Tibet is an important and inadvertently hilarious book. Kawaguchi was a Japanese Buddhist scholar; his fastidious and serious disposition is immediately apparent, and at complete odds with the environment in which he found himself. I've read most of the available accounts of travellers in Tibet that have been written since the mid-1800's. This book shines due to its lack of sentimentality. Kawaguchi's Tibet is plagued with filth, less than perfect monks, and customs that he finds abhorrent. He gets lost and robbed. In one, somehow incredibly amusing, passage he ends up near tears and almost freezing to death in the company of two bleating sheep. In great detail, he describes the customs and culture, as well as the details of life in the Lhasa region. He was able to pass as Chinese, and therefore was able to live freely in the city - visitors from other foreign nations were deported. The book is almost 700 pages long, but it is so interesting, informative, and engaging that I didn't want it to end. The only reason which I can think of that this book isn't more talked about is that it does not fit in with the currently popular mythologized version of Tibet as a homogenous utopia. This is unfortunate, as the portrait that Kawaguchi paints is of a very real and diverse society. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, China, or travel writing. It is also chock full of information useful to historians and other scholars. Best of all, it is an easy and delightful read.
7 people found this helpful
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will crow
5.0 out of 5 starsmany years agoJune 4, 2014
Format: Hardcover
i read this book years ago and had no special interest in buddhism or religion so it's main character the monk was to me a blank slate upon which to hang a fascinating tale of toils and troubles. his account is captivating and to this day i am encouraged by his steadfastness and determination to reach his goal, that of reading buddhist texts in tibet. many odds stacked against him and he persisted. it is a book i recommend to anyone who steps out the front door to see what waits.
2 people found this helpful
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Small town senior
4.0 out of 5 starsSpellbinding and TouchingOctober 12, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
This book has many typos based on translation, no doubt, but do not be deterred. It is a fascinating and true story of Tibet at the turn of the 20th century. It's rare to find such a good and long read at this price!
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